The need for this book arises from
the fact that the majority of cases nowadays turn on the disputed
legal meaning of some enactment. In his 1983 Hamlyn lectures,
the then Lord Chancellor Lord Hailsham of St Marylebone said that
over nine out of ten cases heard before the Court of Appeal or
the House of Lords involve the meaning of words contained in enactments
of primary or secondary legislation. This applies also in the
lower courts. The difficulties have got worse since 1983, and
increased further when the Human Rights Act 1998 was brought into
full operation on 2 October 2000.

The book was first published in 1984.
Its reception by the legal profession can be seen from Reviews,
where Lord Justice Sedley said it 'substitutes for the conventional
categories a series of derived principles and propositions which
make it possible often to crack a problem of interpretation by
approaching it laterally'.

Publishing
History

First edition 1984 (1984.001
Book 10)

Supplement to first edition
1989 (1989.002 Book 18)

Second edition 1992 (1992.001
Book 24)

First supplement to second
edition 1993 (1993.004 Book 27)

Second supplement to second
edition (cumulative) 1995 (1995.004 Book 31)

Third edition 1997 (1997.002
Book 35)

Supplement to third edition
1999 (1999.023 Book 38)

Fourth edition 2002 (2002.003
Book 42)

Supplement to fourth edition
2005 (2005.057 Book 54)

Fifth edition 2008 (2008.013
Book 57)

Additional updating each year
in All England Law Reports Annual Review.